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ONU jumps to No. 2 in U.S. News & World Report edition of ‘America’s Best Colleges’

Ohio Northern University has jumped to the No. 2 ranking among Midwest comprehensive colleges in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report annual edition of "America's Best Colleges."

ONU, which has been ranked in the region's top 10 for the past 16 years, has been elevated to the second spot after being ranked No. 5 for the past six years. U.S. News defines comprehensive colleges as institutions that focus on undergraduate education and offer a range of degrees in the programs liberal arts and professional fields.

"We are very pleased at the high recognition this ranking provides," said ONU President Kendall Baker. "Although we realize that the U.S. News assessment does not include all factors needed to judge colleges and universities, we believe it calls attention to the top quality of the education offered at our University. The higher ranking this year is a tribute to the hard work and accomplishments of our extremely dedicatedly, highly committed university faculty and staff."

Karen Condeni, ONU's vice president and dean of enrollment said, "The U.S. News publication can be a valuable resource for our students looking for the distinctive mix of opportunities offered at ONU. The rankings indicate that we do an excellent job of meeting our students' needs."

U.S. News and World Report offers its publication as a way for students to broaden their college search and compare before visiting and interviewing at appropriate universities. For reporting purposes, the schools are categorized by mission and, and in some cases, region. Data are gathered from each college on up to 15 indicators of academic excellence.

Those indicators fall into the following categories: peer assessment; retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduate rate performance and alumni giving. The indicators are designed to reflect the school's student body, its faculty and financial resources and to measure how well the institution does the job of educating its students.